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2024 NBA Draft Mega Thread

It’s fair to say you don’t pay enough attention lol. Those guys are rookies and are doing just fine.
You and I have very different definitions of “just fine.”

lol

I think it’s fair to say you aren’t going to back down (since everything is an argument with you) and will just argue instead of refute anything I say with facts, well thought arguments, or validation for my legitimate concerns. You know, stuff that is common when discussing topics such as sports. You do you

Carry on
 
Topić should far and away be the consensus #1 prospect in my opinion. He’s 6’7 in shoes with a 7’0 wingspan. Elite rim finisher and passer. I just don’t see a world where he’s not good.

He gets by defenders, with or without a screen, using his tight handle and body control. Then he's on the rim at 6'6" with an ability to hit shooters all over the floor. The NBA is tailor-made for him. He's not Luka, but he's a better prospect than Dragic.
 
Simmons is a loser. But who else on LSU went into the draft from that 2015-2016 roster? Any lotto picks? Did Simmons play with a top 10 pick center? Who was the coach even?

Meanwhile, Castle is playing with how many other lotto picks? If his coach retired tonight, would he already be in the NCAA HOF? I’d be cautious when giving Castle credit for winning at UCONN. He’s playing with some of the best college basketball players in the nation and arguably the best coach at this level.
Simmons didn’t even finish the season. If Castle is as talented as Ben was and had his good attitude then you draft that guy 10/10 times.

How many lotto picks on Uconn… lol it’s Clingan and Castle and not sure there is another first rounder. The kid could have chosen to go to a **** school and do the GG Jackson or Isiah Collier… and we think it’s worrisome that he picked a winning program and coach and willingly accepted a role.

If the shot becomes passable (it can… he doesn’t have wonky form like the other guys mentioned) he’s a high level starter. Think Alex Caruso with maybe more pop. He has some wiggle and quick movement that a guy like Black didn’t. If he becomes good off the catch and passable off the dribble he can be an all star. In our pod the other night I listed off about 10 guys that had his shooting splits that became good shooters in the last 7 or so years. I listed some fails too… but most did not fail because of shooting alone.

He’s a great prospect. He will also likely go 3-5 spots higher than he should in a good draft. It’s okay… this draft is rough. Make lemonade.
 
You and I have very different definitions of “just fine.”

lol

I think it’s fair to say you aren’t going to back down (since everything is an argument with you) and will just argue instead of refute anything I say with facts, well thought arguments, or validation for my legitimate concerns. You know, stuff that is common when discussing topics such as sports. You do you

Carry on
Yeah I don’t do well thought out arguments… please. Those guys are doing about what they should as rookies. Amen has had a great run of games after an injury. Black plays on a very good team so he’s getting slow played. Ausar in a bad situation but has shown a ton. Castle is a better prospect than Black imo. I watched a lot of Black last year. Amen and Ausar are nuclear athletes and better than Castle there but Castle is way easier to project as a shooter.
 
He gets by defenders, with or without a screen, using his tight handle and body control. Then he's on the rim at 6'6" with an ability to hit shooters all over the floor. The NBA is tailor-made for him. He's not Luka, but he's a better prospect than Dragic.
He’s not getting talked about nearly enough. He’s falling under the radar due to not playing. He’s clearly the best prospect in this draft. So crafty and is such a damn good finisher.
 
He’s not getting talked about nearly enough. He’s falling under the radar due to not playing. He’s clearly the best prospect in this draft. So crafty and is such a damn good finisher.

He's disappeared for the past 2 1/2 months, right when he was about to jump a level in Europe. People are starting to worry if he'll have a chronic injury.
 
I'm coming around on Buzelis, even if he looks like a bit of a dork. His superpower is the ability to handle, process and playmake at 6'9". He has a really high BBIQ and ability to make reads. It doesn't always show because the Gleague is up-and-down and Ignite is terrible, but he's capable of making plays inside the arch with his decision-making. Put him in the middle of the floor and he can open up the Jazz's offense. He's got some Hayward-like versatility. He also tries hard and uses his length well defending wings.
 
Cody Williams attempted fewer 3 pointers a game than Castle.

He made more too. 0.7 to 0.6 per game (1.7/2.2 attempts respectively)

That is very little to have any major takeaways.
I think the biggest problem with Castle's shot is his confidence in it. You know what he needs? He needs a Quin Snyder to scream in his face to take every even semi-open 3 he has or he's benched(half joking but yeah... he needs to build his confidence in it, even more than making any serious mechanical changes). I think a lot of his misses come off hesitation and uncertainty about whether he should take the shot or not, which is probably normal when playing on a team like UConn where you can get good shots relatively easily, so record-scratching a possession or two is no big deal... but this won't fly in the league. I won't act like this is not a problem because if he doesn't fix it this limits his potential in the league... but he still does SO MANY WINNING things on the floor... both offensively and defensively. I just don't see any other player in this draft that has better combination of positional size, bball IQ, vision, passing ability and willingness to make the right pass, unselfishness, skill, athleticism, defensive awareness and movement. He just does so many thing right. Now the question is can he take the next step with his shot.
 
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That's true, but Williams made 41.5% and didn't pass up open looks. Also, his 53 attempts is a meaningful sample.
53 attempts is not a meaningful sample. He misses like 3 more of those and he's at 34%. Also, what I'm seeing in the stats is 41 attempts not 53.
 
Ausar Thompson is a better prospect than Castle and he’s shooting 18.6 percent for the year in 3s. His brother is even worse, 14 percent.

If you think the Jazz are winning anything with a starting guard shooting that poorly then I don’t know what to tell ya.

And I don’t know if anyone who’d take the Thompsons over Castle.

Crazy
Castle has better shooting indicators than both Thompson twins and Black. When the sample is so small, I think FT% is better indicator for shooting touch and potential for improvement at the next level. But he definitely does need to improve his confidence in it and he needs to shoot it without hesitation when the shot is there for him. To me this is the much bigger problem right now.
 
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About Edey vs Clingan... I guess Edey did make the point about his offensive game in this one. Even though I had little doubts about him being able to be this offensively efficient against NBA size, whatever doubts there were they were squashed. He answered that question with an emphatic and resounding force. But the biggest question about Edey was never his offensive prowess. It's his ability to stay on the floor defensively vs NBA athleticism, size and skill. And IMO here is where some questions remain and this is where a team like UConn showed some of the problems he might have at the next level - feet not quick enough, hesitation when covering the rim, slow recovery. I wish UConn had more/better PnR guards to see him cover that one, especially against someone who can shoot it off the dribble.

Clingan... I don't think he was doing anything bad in particular when guarding Edey... Edey just... was eating this game. A case of better offense... The interesting thing on offense was that initially he was pretty invisible when Edey was on the floor and the moment Edey sat, Clingan immediatey got a duck in for the and-1 at the rim then continued being active after Edey returned. Might be one of those players that you need to feed a bit for him to gain a momentum.
 
We surround Dunn with shooters. The same would apply to Castle.
If you draft Castle as high as he is likely to go you are not drafting him to surround him with shooters(not that you don't want to have shooters around him...). You are drafting him because you believe he can become at least average shooter in due time.
 
Here's a question ... how certain are we Castle won't return to UConn next year?
 
I do
Castle has bust potential directly related to his inability in and lack of confidence in his shot. It would not be surprising if he just never can develops a shot - more than half off all players never do. I don't know how you can predict that. I would take him outside the top ten.
nt think he lacks confidence at all.
 
If you draft Castle as high as he is likely to go you are not drafting him to surround him with shooters(not that you don't want to have shooters around him...). You are drafting him because you believe he can become at least average shooter in due time.
You draft him because he's good. Period. I think people are overthinking the shooting stuff. The indicators are good enough.
 
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